YA Series about alive boy sent to ghost fantasy world by ghost to prevent him from being killed

Question

I remember the series being called something like "Ghost World" or "Ghost" something. The issue is that there is already a story called Ghost World. I've done quite a bit of searching. It does quite appear that perhaps the series never went online or my Search-fu is weak.

The story starts with a female ghost pulling a live boy into her world that she is allowed to leave once a year visiting a house where she lived / died. I didn't read the first book, so I'm going off of callbacks.

The ghost world is quite fantastical and would remind you of The Seventh Tower. The story revolves around the girl and the boy attempting to find a way back to the real world while having many misadventures. The ghost girl eventually falls for the boy.

It has been several decades and I'm curious as to whether the boy ever did escape or what the love interest angle would be. Did he decide to stay after all? I doubt it.

If I remember correctly, the series was by two authors and it was released in the '90s by scholastic.

Answer 1

It is called Ghostworld, the first in the series being named Beyond Terror. The series is by Barbara Siegel. I was in the same boat, looking endlessly for these books!

The Guardian of the Mist has disappeared, and Dark forces within Ghostworld have arisen. Caught in the middle of an impending war between good and evil, Andy learns what Elizabeth already knows--that he cannot return to the world of the living until the dark fire of evil is stopped.

A review on Amazon reveals the boy being brought in by the ghost girl:

Elizabeth Teller, burned in a 1960s house fire, now dwells in Ghostworld, a purgatorial netherland haunted by souls seeking the newly dead to take their places. Years after her death, she returns to the land of the living to escort a dying high school chum to the other side. Instead, she finds Andy Moser, who is about to have his brains crushed by murderous thieves, and spirits him to Ghostworld in the nick of time. Getting Andy back home proves difficult, as a horde of ghouls and monsters pursue the couple. A cliffhanger ends each chapter; a hairbreadth escape begins the next one. There's little depth here, but plenty of action. Expect a sequel: the last page finds Andy still in Ghostworld, about to pass through the Hole to the Other Side and return to his family, leaving Elizabeth forever--maybe.